Bohemian Gothic Tarot

KNIGHT OF WANDS

Lighter or more conventional meanings

A charming, energetic but somewhat feckless man (or boyish woman) * A magnetically attractive person * Optimism and energy * Someone who is courageous and inclined to charge right into action * A man or woman of immense charisma, but who lacks commitment * Emigration, making a major domestic or job move.

Darker, shadow or more hidden meanings

Someone who "loves them and leaves them" * A charming manipulator, particularly of the emotions of the opposite sex * An energetic and passionate lover, but not one to rely on long-term * A charismatic person with little sense of responsibility.

A dashing military officer stands in an overgrown graveyard gazing into space. He appears lost in thought - and also merely a little smug. His horse quietly looks on.

This Knight is the charmer of the tarot. At first acquaintance he may seem as emotionally charged as the Knight of Cups but in fact his feelings go much less deep, the Knight of Wands tends to be rather "love them and leave them". After one conquest he will soon be busy looking around for the next encounter. It's not exactly that he's callous, but he is after adventure first and foremost so it's mostly the beginning of a relationship, the time when there is some challenge, that excites him. Later, when it's established and stable, he is likely to become bored with it and eager for new possibilities. He can be a lot of fun and his friendship is energising, but he isn't someone to rely on in the longer term.

From a Gothic perspective, this Knight is the hero who lures a poor girl to her doom. He's the "cad" who does not worry too much about the consequences for her as long as he gets his own thrills. Charming initially, he can be fatal as a lover, and he may not even notice the consequences of his actions, nor care much about them when they become apparent.

We look at the picture on this card and the first question that comes to mind is why this man is in this overgrown graveyard. One explanation is that he's visiting the grave of one of his past lovers. Perhaps he feels merely a hint of guilt at her early death. There's something melancholy in the card, though one wonders how long the thoughtful mood will last with this Knight. Is he finally facing up to some responsibility, or will he carry on charging into relationships and then just as quickly charging off again when they make too many demands - or when tragedy looms?

Some further ways to consider this card

Try to imagine the story of the love affair that could have happened between this soldier and the girl who is now dead. It may provide useful insight if you do this first from the point of view of the girl and then from the point of view (which is probably very different) of the man.

The astonishing natural advantages of this poor boy - his beauty, his readiness, the daring spirit that breathed around him like a fiery atmosphere - had raised his constitutional self-confidence into an arrogance that turned his very claims to admiration into prejudices against him. Irascible, envious - bad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were all varnished over with a cold, repellent cynicism, his passions vented themselves in sneers. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility; and, what was more remarkable in a proud nature, little or nothing of the true point of honour. He had, to a morbid excess, that, desire to rise which is vulgarly called ambition, but no wish for the esteem or the love of his species; only the hard wish to succeed - not shine, not serve - succeed, that he might have the right to despise a world which galled his self-conceit.
- Dr. Rufus W Griswold, writing about Edgar Allan Poe in the "Tribune".